HELSINKI—Riding high after hosting a successful World Cup, Russian President Vladimir Putin brought a special gift to his summit with US President Donald J. Trump: a soccer ball.
After a journalist asked a question at their joint press conference on Monday in Helsinki using soccer metaphors, Putin pulled out a red-and-white ball and tossed it at Trump, at the neighboring podium.
Trump said he’d give it to his 12-year-old son Barron, a soccer fan. Then the US president tossed the ball to his wife Melania, sitting in the front row.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Putin critic, tweeted: “if it were me, I’d check the soccer ball for listening devices and never allow it in the White House.”
Russia’s organization of the monthlong World Cup, which ended on Sunday, won wide praise.
The victory came at a time when many French were in need of good news, and the magic provided a sense that a grand coming together might at least paper over political, economic and social fissures for a while.
MADONNA EYES SOCCER ACADEMY
MADONNA has returned to Malawi to celebrate the first anniversary of a medical facility named after one of the four children she adopted children from this southern African country.
The pop star on Monday visited the Mercy James Institute for Pediatric Surgery and Intensive Care at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. Her charity funded the facility, whose highlights include the first successful separation of conjoined twins in Malawi.
Madonna met the mother and aunt of the twins. She says they have been through a lot and it was good to “give them hope.”
The pop star is considering a new project in Malawi, thanks to adopted son David Banda.
The plan? Establish a soccer academy. David Banda says he dreams of Malawi making it to the World Cup.